United States Prevention, Pesticides EPA712-C-96-024 Environmental Protection and Toxic Substances August 1996 Agency (7101) &EPA Product Properties Test Guidelines OPPTS 830.6315 Flammability ------- INTRODUCTION This guideline is one of a series of test guidelines that have been developed by the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, United States Environmental Protection Agency for use in the testing of pesticides and toxic substances, and the development of test data that must be submitted to the Agency for review under Federal regulations. The Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) has developed this guideline through a process of harmonization that blended the testing guidance and requirements that existed in the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) and appeared in Title 40, Chapter I, Subchapter R of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) which appeared in publications of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and the guidelines pub- lished by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The purpose of harmonizing these guidelines into a single set of OPPTS guidelines is to minimize variations among the testing procedures that must be performed to meet the data requirements of the U. S. Environ- mental Protection Agency under the Toxic Substances Control Act (15 U.S.C. 2601) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (7U.S.C. I36,etseq.). Final Guideline Release: This document is available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402 on The Federal Bul- letin Board. By modem dial 202-512-1387, telnet and ftp: fedbbs.access.gpo.gov (IP 162.140.64.19), internet: http:// fedbbs.access.gpo.gov, or call 202-512-0132 for disks or paper copies. This guideline is available in ASCII and PDF (portable document format) from the EPA Public Access Gopher (gopher.epa.gov) under the heading "Environmental Test Methods and Guidelines." ------- OPPTS 830.6315 Flammability. (a) Scope—(1) Applicability. This guideline is intended to meet test- ing requirements of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) (7 U.S.C. 136, et seq.}. (2) Background. The source material used in developing this har- monized OPPTS test guideline is OPP guideline 63-15 Flammability (Pes- ticide Assessment Guidelines, Subdivision D: Product Chemistry, EPA Re- port 540/9-82-018, October 1982) and 40 CFR 158.190 Physical and chemical characteristics. (b) Test methods—(1) Objective, (i) Data on the physical and chem- ical characteristics of pesticide products are used to confirm or provide supportive information on their identity. Such data are also used in review- ing the production or formulating process used to produce the pesticide or product. (ii) This test is used to characterize the flammability of liquids and gases for purposes of safety. (2) Test details—(i) Liquids. The flash point shall be determined for combustible liquid products by any procedure consistent with para- graph (d) of this guideline or which is acceptable to any other Federal agency that requires this determination. The following table 1 summarizes the applicability and equipment requirements for the four commonly used methods. Table 1—Comparison of Flash Point Test Methods Method Test Material Equipment Tag Closed Tester Setaflash Closed Tester Pensky-Martens Closed Tester CIPAC MT 12 (Abel Methods) Liquids with viscosity < 9.5 cSt at 25 °C and flash point below 93 °C. Paints, enamels, lacquers, and related products having flash points between 0-100 °C and viscosity 150 st at 25 °C. Fuel oils, lube oils, suspensions of solids, liquids that form a surface film, and other liquids. Petroleum products and mix- tures (liquid, viscous, or solid), viscous products. Laboratory fabrication Available from manufacturer Laboratory fabrication Laboratory fabrication (ii) Aerosols. The flash point method is inadequate for determining the flammability of aerosols. Flame extension or flame projection of aero- sol products shall be determined by the "Standard Method of Test for Flammability of Aerosol Products, ASTM D-3065" (see paragraph (d)(l) of this guideline). ------- (iii) Alternative method. If an alternative method is used, it is rec- ommended that the registrant consult with the Agency prior to adopting the test method. (c) Reporting. (1) The flash point shall be reported in degrees Cel- sius. (2) The flame extension or flame projection shall be reported to the nearest centimeter. (3) Any methods used to characterize the physical properties of a pesticide shall be referenced or described in the application for registration. If the methods used are listed in paragraph (d) of this guideline, reference to the method will suffice. If other methods are used, copies of such meth- ods must be submitted with the application. (4) References that denote "ASTM" refer to standardized methods published by the American Society for Testing and Materials. Philadelphia, PA. References denoting "CIPAC" refer to standardized methods of the Collaborative International Pesticide Analytical Council, Ltd., Hatching Green, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England. (5) The applicant shall submit his own statistical evaluation of the precision and accuracy of these measurements (e.g., standard deviations or confidence intervals) when appropriate. (d) References. The following references should be consulted for ad- ditional background material on this test guideline. (1) American Society for Testing and Materials, "Standard Test Methods for Flammability of Aerosol Products," D-3065, ASTM, Phila- delphia, PA, 1994 annual index. (2) American Society for Testing and Materials, "Flash Point by Tag Closed Tester," D-56, ASTM, Philadelphia, PA, 1994 annual index. (3) American Society for Testing and Materials, "Flash Point by Pensky-Martens Closed Tester," D-93, ASTM, Philadelphia, PA, 1994 an- nual index. (4) American Society for Testing and Materials, "Flash Point of Liq- uids by Setaflash Closed-cup Apparatus," D-3278, ASTM, Philadelphia, PA, 1994 annual index. (5) Collaborative International Pesticide Analytical Council (CIPAC) Handbook, "MT 12 Flash Point," CIPAC, Hatching Green, Harpenden, Herefordshire, England (1970). (6) Official Journal of the European Communities, "A. 10. Flam- mability (Solids)," No L 383 A/76. ------- (7) Official Journal of the European Communities, "A. 11. Flam- mability (Gases)," No L 383 A/79. (8) Official Journal of the European Communities, "A. 12. Flam- mability (Contact With Water)," No L 383 A/81. ------- |